One Touching Story
Good morning... This week, we have been considering the three simple rules which will change our world. First we commit to "Do No Harm." In practical ways, what might this look like? I just met a story that helps me understand more clearly the transformational love of God. ****** Transitions by Paula D'Arcy In the 1990s, I heard author Frederick Buechner (1926–2022) tell a story from his time teaching at Exeter Academy. He [...]
Our No Hurting Zone
Good morning... "What a wonderful message, Sue!" she emailed after yesterday's post, Follow The Purple Path. "I just love anything purple. In the area around our farm in NC, people paint purple lines on trees around their property to indicate no hunting is allowed there. There is a big deer hunting season up there. And we have put purple in our trees. From now on, it will make me think of your line, [...]
Follow The Purple Path
Good morning... Purple is the common ground created when red, white, and blue are combined with loving care. Purple taps into God's guiding power, creative, cooperative, collaborative. As I was pondering these thoughts, I was surprised to find and to follow an actual path in the woods clearly marked by purple blazes. On page 26, we pick up a description of the purple path as we consider quotes from Three Simple Rule: A [...]
On Back Roads Of PA
Good morning... As I walked the back roads of rural Pennsylvania, flags were everywhere. Red. White. Blue. Everywhere. It dawned on me that something new is created as we melt together the distinct colors of these manmade symbols. Red. White. Blue. Blended, these different shades become purple. I began to see purple everywhere. Calming, collaborative, purple everywhere. [...]
No Easy Answers
Good morning... "Prior to my loss, my prayers had been petitions for things I hoped to have or intercessions for others," writes beloved author Paula D'Arcy, who lost her husband and her three year old daughter to the recklessness of a drunk driver. "Now my one prayer was, 'Show me. Show me,' or, 'Teach me how to see.' A guidance from within began transforming me through that prayer. I felt a sincere desire [...]
Don’t Wait To Get Worse
Good morning... I love the Thursday Thought my friend Mazi Robinson shared this week. Mazi runs Cultivate Counseling, a wonderful resource for health and well being in our Atlanta community. Here are the encouraging words Mazi shared yesterday. ***** I am a quote person. I love quotes. When I hear a good one, I immediately write it down in the Notes app in my phone. Years ago, I heard comedian Craig Ferguson share [...]
When Caregivers Tire
Good morning... After re-reading yesterday's post, This Unique Summer, I embodied a fresh prayer on my morning walk. "LORD, please help me to be grateful for each creature greeting me on my path, and help me to recognise an angel at every corner." Soon, I happened upon this stack of old tires. Piled up. Strewn about. Disheveled, in disarray. I thought of how sometimes our worries pile up. Our mixed emotions can feel [...]
This Unique Summer
Good morning... As we near the center of this unique summer, I remember back to a prayer I met the day it officially began. ****** A PRAYER TO BEGIN SUMMER For more light in the day, we thank you, For gentle mornings, we thank you, For nighttime conversations, we thank you, For friends and family, we thank you, For gardens and all manner of creatures, we thank you. Help us, Creator and lover [...]
The Injustice Of Old Age
Good morning... As I came upon this grasshopper, motionless on the rocky road, I thought of one of the most sobering segments in Scripture. Powerful and poetic, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 describes in great detail our natural aging process. Here we visit the verses in the VOICE translation. And so we come to the end of this musing over life. My advice to you is to remember your Creator, God, while you are young: before life gets hard and [...]
This Explosive Week
Good morning... She emailed me after yesterday's post, Imagine Something Better. "So crazy, Sue," she wrote, "my husband and I were having a similar conversation yesterday over coffee after I mentioned a quote I’d recently read that said in previous generations people used to naturally seek and focus on what we have in common with one another, but now it’s the differences that get the focus and immediately separate people and damage community. [...]
Imagine Something Better
Good morning... As we enjoyed a candid discussion on the porch, my husband Steve read aloud yesterday's meditation from Richard Rohr. By request, he forwarded it to me. Now I share the wisdom with you. ****** Imagine Something Better - Author Sarah Bessey names the need to be “for” something good, not merely “against” what is wrong: Imagining and contending for what you hope for in this world is one of the hardest [...]
Death. Dementia. Division.
Good morning... Last week, she shared the tumultuous story of her own grief. "I think I shared this after my Dad passed away last year," she wrote. "It was two days after Dad had passed, and I was managing very difficult family dynamics with my siblings and a painful dementia diagnosis for my mom. I was exhausted and speechless. I genuinely was feeling chest pains, and my friend texted to check on me. [...]